FIRST CERTIFICATE (FCE) CAMBRIDGE

FIRST CERTIFICATE (FCE) CAMBRIDGE

The Cambridge English: First exam, also known as the FCE exam or the Cambridge First Certificate, is designed for students with a high intermediate level of English. It is the most popular of the Cambridge exams, because it is usually the minimum level required by university programs in English-speaking countries.

Part 1 (75 minutes) - The first section of the First Certificate exam assesses reading comprehension, grammar and vocabulary. This part has a total of 52 multiple-choice questions, to fill in blanks and column relations. During this part of the FCE you have to read approximately 2,200 words in total.

Part 2 (80 minutes) - The second section of the Cambridge First Certificate evaluates the written expression. You have to write two texts, each between 140 and 190 words. The first writing is an essay. For the second wording, you can choose between different text formats; article, letter, criticism, etc.

Part 3 (40 minutes) - The third section of the First Certificate assesses oral comprehension. Short speeches, conversations or other types of messages are heard in native English and questions about what has been heard are answered. Each recording is played twice. There are a total of 30 questions in this part.

Part 4 (14 minutes) - The last section of the FCE evaluates oral expression. Students do this part of the test in pairs, and they may have to do this part on a different day than the other three parts of the test, depending on the test center. The oral test is divided into four short subsections, the first two speak only one and the other two speak with the other applicant

Here you have a video explanation with some exmples: